Bulldogs Host Yale Spring Opener

Apr 01, 2010

Look to Knock Off Reigning Champions Harvard

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – After finishing second
at the George Washington Invitational and breaking Yale’s
single round scoring record, the Bulldogs are looking to ride that
momentum into the Yale Spring Opener. The one-day, 36-hole
tournament will be held on Apr. 3 and pits the Bulldogs against 10
other teams, including two league opponents.

The tournament will be played on the world famous Yale golf
course. The course was designed by Charles Blair Macdonald, the
renowned golf course architect, champion golfer and co-founder of
the USGA. He collaborated with Seth Raynor and Charles Banks to
design the course, which was opened in 1926. The course is
recognized as one of the finest examples of early American golf
course design with large deeply bunkered greens and narrow rolling
fairways. The course has been the site of every significant state
championship, two USGA Junior National events, the 1991, 2004, and
2010 NCAA Eastern Regional championships and both the men's and
women's ECAC Championships. It has been voted the No.1
College Golf Course in America and No.45 of the Top 100 Classical
Golf Courses in America. In 1988, it was ranked by Golf Magazine as
71st among the 100 most difficult courses in the world.

Yale will be fielding two teams and they will be joined by 10
visiting schools. Dartmouth and Harvard are the lone Ivy
League competition. Joining the Ivy Leaguers will be Bentley,
Central Connecticut, Fordham, Hartford, Holy Cross, Sacred Heart,
Skidmore and Trinity.

The Bulldogs are coming off a strong finish at the George
Washington Invitational. Yale placed three players in the
top-10. Other than Missouri who ran away with the tournament
to beat the field by 32 strokes, Yale defeated the other 14 teams
in the competition. Junior Thomas McCarthy, senior Ben
Wescoe, and freshman Brad Kushner finished in fourth, fifth and
seventh, respectively. McCarthy shot rounds of 68 (-4), 75
(+3) and 66 (-6) to finish with a score of 209 (-7). He was
followed closely by Wescoe and Kushner who finished just a stroke
apart. Wescoe finished with a total of 211 (-5) and Kushner
shot 212 (-4). Wescoe’s best round was a 68 (-4) to
open the tournament, while Kushner closed the tournament with a 69
(-3).

At last year’s Yale Spring Opener, the Bulldogs finished
second behind league rival Harvard. The Bulldogs shot a round
of 610, losing to Harvard by five strokes. Sophomore Jeff
Hatten led the way for Yale followed closely by Wescoe, McCarthy,
Taylor Hakes ’09 and Colby Moore ’09. The
Bulldogs battled tough conditions all day, but in the end Harvard
outplayed Yale to claim the invitational.

Despite wet conditions the last few days, the forecast for the
weekend is sunny. The Bulldogs will be looking to knock off
the two-time reigning champions Harvard.